Bear Hunt Helps Alaskan Football Player Make College Decision

Chase Ferris wasn’t sure if he wanted to play college football, so he let a bear hunt decide his fate.

Chase Ferris, a senior at Palmer (Alaska) High is a standout in multiple sports, especially football, where he’s a two-time all-state player. However, like every player, Ferris recently had a tough choice to make: continue to play or hang up the pads.

The Frontiersman reported that if Ferris killed a bear then he’d stick with football. If not, he’d call it a career and focus on only academics.

Long story short, Ferris tracked an elusive bear and bagged it.

“I let it all come down to fate, and fate chose University of Mary,” Ferris told The Frontiersman after signing on May 5. “We’d gone up for [the bear] once. We hadn’t seen it in two days. I said, we kill it, I’ll go play football.”

Ferris later admitted to The Frontiersman that making the kill to keep him on the field was actually more of a relief than just a thrill of bagging a bear.

“Once I made the decision, it’s a full commitment,” Ferris told The Frontiersman. “(The) decision was weighing me down. I was losing sleep over it. It’s the biggest decision I’ve had to make.”

Ferris’ recent bear hunt won’t be his last even with the move from Palmer to Bismarck, North Dakota.